The Pieces

Chapter 6

September 2028

It was a while before he opened the door “Thea I’d like you meet your daddy” I said while crouching down to her height and pointing at Peyton “he really wanted to meet you” she got close to me a little confused and said “up” so I picked her up. “Can you give him the present you brought.” She holds the bag out to Peyton who grabs it and looks inside to see her drawing. “She drew that this morning” I said smiling at Thea.

“Looks really nice” his voice was in the higher pitch kid voice. “Kenzie we need to talk about custody arrangements.” his voice in a serious tone “can I?” he asked as he reached his hands towards Thea.

“Yeah of course” I hand over Thea to him he starts walking in and holds the door open to make sure I know I’m invited into his house. Just as I entered my phone started ringing “it’s work” I said softly as I answered the phone. “Yes Clara?.. I’m with Thea right now… how urgent is it?.. I’ll be there in 30 minutes” I groaned as I walked over to where Thea was seated. “I need to go into work so I’ll drop her off at her grandmother’s on the way and you can have a bonding time later.”

“Why can’t she just stay here I don’t have work?”

“Have you ever taken care of a 2 year old before?”

“I have 3 younger siblings”

“That doesn’t matter have you taken care of a 2 year old before?”

“Had you before Thea turned 2?”

“No but my mom was there to help me”

“I can call my mom over if that would make you more comfortable, but also I need your consent to change her last name” he pulls some papers off of a counter.

“Thea Cassidy Kennedy?”

“Her middle name is Cassidy?”

“Yeah because her last name was Brown they didn’t clash” I groaned and read the papers and signed “but she can have your last name just forward me what I need to give to her school and doctor and other places where she has a file.” I kiss Thea on the cheek “bye princess you’re going to hang-out with your daddy and maybe his mommy I love you and will be back as soon as I can be” I wave goodbye and leave.

November 5, 2033

“Mommy can you stay at Daddy’s house again?” Thea asked me like she always did when I came over, she to was tired of the back and forth that had become our lives but it’s how things were arranged for the last 4 years.

“Sure sweetie I’ll ask” I replied hugging her and walking down one of the hallways to her father’s room I felt sick to my stomach but I needed to tell him. When I arrived he was looking through his ties and organizing them. “Hey we need to talk about the thing that we’ve both been avoiding mentioning.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I’m two months late” I said then suddenly feeling the urge to cry but suppressing it. Clearly having his attention “I brought over 3 tests and Thea wants me to stay the night again but I was thinking if you let me I could take them and we could see together.”

“How are you sure anything happened between us?”

“I woke up n***d and you were as well unless you were just looking not touching something happened!” I scream back a tear rolling down my cheek I wipe it away and hold back any more.

“Us and alcohol don’t mix, or they mix to well. Depends on your perspective”

“So can I stay over? I’ll sleep in Thea’s room and I’ll take the test with you in the morning.”

“Yes, but take one now, one before bed, then the third on the morning and tell or show me the results of all three. Book a doctors appointment just in case for as soon as possible, at-home tests can give both false positives and negatives I don’t want to take either of those chances” he then pointed at the master bathroom attached to his room.

I walked into the bathroom and pulled out the cheapest test and took it my heart pounding as the time went by and it was a clear positive. I came out of the bathroom and showed him and booked a doctors appointment for the blood test at their earliest convenience.

October 2028

“Full freaking custody!” I scream “I’m Thea’s mother and I haven’t done a dang thing wrong but you think you can get full custody!” I throw the papers on the table.

“Ken…” he tried to interrupt

“NO you have lawyer friends and more money so you think you can take a daughter away from her mother pretty much permanently.” I laugh almost manically “and to think I was going to try and be reasonable and go for a joint custody arrangement but you’ve really showed your true colors” I roll my eyes and grab my coat.

“Miss Brow…”

“Save it, I’ll see you in court!” I storm out of his house and get in my car and I could feel the tears rolling down my face. He had more money and that’s what usually wins and I didn’t want him to take my daughter away from me. “I wish I never agreed to that test he’d have no grounds for the court to give it to him otherwise” I say as I wipe the tears away and start my vehicle. Just as I pull out a girl drives into his driveway. She gets out and Peyton meets her on the porch they talk for a little bit and then she goes inside with him.

I park a little bit down the street and find Peyton’s f*******: and under relationship status it said engaged to: Emily Cifarelli. I felt so stalkerish but I clicked on her profile and it had a cute photo her and Peyton and her showing off her ring, which was huge and expensive looking. Angered I drove back into Peyton’s driveway and got out but before I knocked on his door I realized I could hear their conversation and without really thinking I decided to listen in.

“My birthday is coming up and I need a new phone or computer” Emily said in a voice that sounded eerily sweet.

“What’s wrong with your phone and laptop?”

“They’re outdated” she added a pouty face and smiled at him

“You don’t need the latest electronics” he replied

“Yeah but we can afford it and Apple is going to announce its new phone soon so you could pre-order it for me please” she started to give him the puppy eyes.

“Well I’ll think about it but, I’m pretty tied up financially since I’m going to be fighting for full custody of Thea”

“Do you need full custody if it’s going to cost that much money I bet her mother is reasonable and would be fair in custody” I decided to knock at that moment as some emotion took over me, possible maturnal. Emily goes to the door and opened it, she was prettier than her pictures and she was taller than me more Peyton’s height. “Hello, Kennedy residence how may I help you?”

“I’m here to talk to Peyton” I crossed my arms as he came to the door either by hearing my voice, his name, or both.

“Yes, Kenzie?” Peyton said getting closer and Emily just walked away not saying anything.

“When were you going to tell me you were engaged?” I said anger dripped from every word.

“I didn’t think it was pertinent to the conversation”

“So you don’t think I should know who all is going to be around my daughter…”

“Our daughter” Peyton interrupted

“Still I’m assuming you would plan to marry your fiance which would mean that she’d be around our daughter whenever you had her. So why is that something I shouldn’t know!”

“Okay I guess you have a point” he turned his face into the house “Emily, come here” Peyton called and Emily walks up next to him and kissed him in front of me and turned to me.

“Kenzie you’re so right we should get lunch together sometime so that you can get to know me since Peyton is going for full custody I’d basically be her mom” she smiles ay Peyton but when she turned to me and laughed. “Peyton will give me your number and we will be in contact” when she looked back at Peyton and kissed him again before leaving the doorway.

“You know what you guys deserve each other” my voice strained